Iranian air crash

At least 168 passengers and crew are feared dead after a Caspian Airlines plane crashed in the north of Iran, state media says.

Wreckage was spread over a large area in a field in Jannatabad village, Qazvin province, about 75 miles (120km) north-west of Tehran, state TV said.

The Tupolev aircraft was flying from the Iranian capital to Yerevan in Armenia, Iranian media said.

The cause of the crash, which happened soon after take-off, was not known.

"The 7908 Caspian flight crashed 16 minutes after its take-off from the International Imam Khomeini Airport," Iran's Aviation Organisation spokesman, Reza Jafarzadeh, was quoted by Iranian Press TV as saying.

An eyewitness said the plane dropped out of the sky and exploded on impact.

The Qazvin Fire Department Chief said residents began calling emergency services about noon local time after seeing thick smoke.

"After going to the crash scene and scouting, we found that the area of the disaster is very wide and wreckage of the crashed plane have been thrown around as far as 150 to 200m," he said.

Television footage showed a massive crater in a field, with smouldering debris over a wide area.

From Jon Leyne, BBC correspondent: Iran has a notoriously bad air safety record. Because of sanctions imposed by the United States, Iran relies on an increasingly ageing fleet of airliners, and has trouble buying spares. There are tales of aircrew buying spare parts on flights to Europe, then sneaking them back to Iran in the cockpit. While those sanctions don't apply to aircraft from Russia and Ukraine, many planes from those countries in the Iranian fleet also appear well past their best. For some people, flying in Iran can be a nerve-wracking experience. Stepping on board, it often becomes quickly apparent you are in a plane that has done many years service. There are also frequent delays because of the shortage of aircraft. Iranian engineers and aircrew do their best to keep their fleets in service.

Mr Jafarzadeh said there were no irregularities reported before the plane took off.

"The regulations of the State Aviation Organisation do not allow a plane to take off before security of the plane is 100% approved," he told Iranian television.

"As to why this happened and what problem the plane ran into, we will need to carry out a thorough investigation of all contributing elements."

The plane was built in Russia in 1987.

A Caspian Airlines representative told Associated Press news agency that most of the passengers were Armenians, with some Georgian citizens also on board.

It was unclear if other nationalities were involved.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered his condolences to the families of the victims.

Ten members of Iran's national junior judo team were reported to be on the plane, ahead of training with the Armenian team.

IRANIAN PLANE CRASHES 6 December, 2005: A C-130 military transport plane crashes on the outskirts of the Iranian capital Tehran, killing 110 people, including some on the ground 19 February, 2003: An Iranian military transport aircraft carrying 276 people crashes in the south of the country, killing all on board 23 December, 2002: An Antonov 140 commuter plane carrying aerospace experts crashes in central Iran, killing all 46 people on board

The BBC's Jon Leyne said the country was reliant on air transport, but it had been three years since the last crash.

The civil and military fleets are made up of elderly aircraft, in poor condition due to their age and lack of maintenance.

Since Iran's Islamic revolution of 1979, trade embargoes by Western nations have forced Iran to buy mainly Russian-built planes to supplement an existing fleet of Boeings and other American and European models.